


Colour Me Surprised

by GemNika



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Artist Lucy, Blind Lucy, CoLu Week 2016, F/M, M/M, Romance, Scientist Cobra, Synesthesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 15:09:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16431788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemNika/pseuds/GemNika
Summary: Her eyes were the color of oxidized copper, but Erik didn't realize just how much he would enjoy the mix-up in his schedule until she helped him see the world a little differently.





	Colour Me Surprised

 

There were a great many things that Erik 'Cobra' Vivas knew. It was a requirement of the highest marked student in Caelum University, not just in his year or in his major, but across the board. If asked what one should wash a solution of diethyl ether with to extract isobutyric acid, he could instantly say three 10 mL washes of water, with a further explanation that isobutyric acid will enter the aqueous layer and wash off of the organic layer of diethyl ether.

The problem with being at Caelum University, aside from the fact that he really just hated mostly everyone there, was that they were severely lacking in an organic chemistry program. He loved the professors there, the two that weren't complete bumbling morons, because they made sure to challenge him at every opportunity. But there just wasn't anything he could do about the lack of a graduate program that he really needed. Yes, he was only eighteen. He'd finished his dual major and gotten his fancy degrees, but there was still more shit he had to do.

And that was why he'd finally just gotten over it and moved away from home, the only place he'd ever known as one being his fucking dorm room that was, thankfully, housing only himself. Really, leaving the damn country wasn't that much of a tearjerker, considering the shitty childhood he'd had in Caelum. He would miss his grandmother, but that's what phones were for.

And so, partway through the fall semester, because the starting dates were different in Fiore from what he was accustomed to, Erik found himself glaring at the Fine Arts building before him with his lip curling in disgust.

Art.

It was something he'd never found time (or cared) to appreciate, and the people that dared to call themselves artists, more often than not, were total fucking lunatics.

Hell, the multi-coloured hair of six women in a row that passed him while he started walking inside was enough for him to decide right then and there that the stereotypes were just fucking true. They existed for a damn reason.

The schedule he'd signed up for, with graduate classes that were supposed to fill him up and put him on the brink of insanity by week's end - because there was just no way in fucking hell he could manage having any free time - only to start all over again the next week, was in shambles.

He'd already gone to Student Services, spoken with his advisor - the little bald-headed prick that he was - had a meeting with the Head of the Science Department as well as the Dean of Graduate Studies, and they'd all told him the same thing. They were working on getting the problem resolved. Because Erik had been smart enough to print out the screenshots of his registration, he'd had the ammunition to throw at them that, no, he was not so fucking inept that he could have somehow clicked the wrong thing and chosen an art class instead of the one-thirty lecture he'd needed.

He was also not stupid enough to click the College of Arts tab instead of Arts and Sciences.

In the event that he  _was_  that fucking dumb, he was positive that the word  _chemistry_  looked a whole lot fucking different from  _art_. And  _Advanced Organometallic Compounds 6924_  sure as shit did not resemble  _Advanced Painting 6477_.

He was just a little unnerved that there was a graduate course for painting.

Still, the people down in Financial Aid had decided that they would grant him a waiver on his tuition for the sixth class because of the fuck-up. His desired class was actually less expensive by two hundred dollars, somehow, so he'd paid for that and they were waiting on whether or not to collect the excess funds.

But still, he had a class to get to, as much as he loathed the idea of being locked in a room with a bunch of fucking artsy dunces that didn't have any skills or intelligence outside of throwing paint on a piece of canvas and calling it pretty when really, it looked like a toddler shit all over it then murdered the fucking family cat. Twice.

This was going to kill his fucking soul, he already knew it.

Every piece of 'artwork' he passed was ludicrously abstract. Okay, so there were some decent landscapes, but really… He could just go to the store and buy a fucking Thomas Kinkade calendar if that was what he wanted to look at.

The small consolation in it all was that he'd been able to meet with the professor, Doctor Reedus Jonah, and the guy totally understood the shit situation he'd been sucked into. All Erik had to do was show up and make an attempt until things were sorted out, and he wouldn't make a fuss.

That was fine with him.

Hell, he could probably draw figures of molecules and paint equations. That would be interesting, he guessed.

Just as he rounded a corner from the elevator on the fourth floor, he paused in his step as a busty blonde came rushing down the hall and bumped into his shoulder. She stopped only two steps later and turned to give him a small smile, and his eye narrowed at the sight of her overly large sunglasses.

"I'm-"

"You people are all fucking morons," he growled. "Take off your goddamn glasses inside, then maybe you'd be able to see where the fuck you're going."

Her smile faltered as he brushed past. "... Sorry..."

Erik rolled his eye while storming down the hall toward room 437. The professor was already there, and he simply smiled at the angry student and nodded to an easel in the back of the class. Really, that was where Erik had been planning on going anyway. The last thing he needed was anyone else being behind him and seeing that he was, for the first time in his school career, slacking the hell off in a class.

The last quarter hour before the class began ticked by and Erik was left glaring at the easel that blocked his view of the class around him.

Twenty minutes into the lecture that he was studiously ignoring in favor of reading the textbook for his next class - which was more like reading it a second time, since he'd already gone through this one in particular during his second year back in Caelum in his spare time - and the door to the class quietly opened.

Dr. Reedus, as he insisted they call him, paused in his speech and Erik frowned when he heard quiet murmurs from his classmates.

" _Sunglasses is here?"_

" _Oh shit, we're all screwed this semester."_

" _Oh my god, I love her artwork!"_

" _I know. Can you believe she-"_

"Here's your spot, Lucy," Dr. Reedus said quietly. "If you need to sit closer to the front, please let me know."

"Well, there's a door back here," she said with a sweet smile. "I can use that. Sorry for interrupting the lecture. It won't happen again."

Erik frowned as the professor guided the busty blonde that had nearly bowled his ass over out in the hallway to the seat right next to him. Her sunglasses were still on. Sure, there were plenty of windows letting natural light in, and on a bright day it might get a little uncomfortable, but the day was overcast at best.

There was literally  _no_  fucking reason for the blonde to wear the shit.

And damnit, he couldn't help but hate her a little more just because she looked like the typical cheerleader. Too-tight jeans that might as well have been painted on. A black tube top that bared her perfectly flat stomach and a little belly ring. Long straight golden hair hanging down around her shoulders, but not for long as she pulled the hair tie from her wrist and tossed it up into a messy bun.

Still, he went back to reading his book and ignored everything around him until it was time for them to, apparently, paint something. Or, at least, they were supposed to start sketching out their ideas before moving to the canvas.

At the quick nod from the instructor, he sighed and closed his textbook, then pulled out the sketch pad he'd bought simply because it had been on sale - and he was a stickler for being prepared.

Erik wasn't an artist by any stretch of the imagination.

His most critically acclaimed piece of art was a stick figure, named H3, anger-banging an acetic acid formula, with a thought bubble of  _'Makes me cooh!'_  above it. It was apparently not as funny as he'd thought when he'd spray-painted the shit on his professor's office door. But really, that was what the guy got for trying to give him a ninety-four on the midterm because Erik had corrected his incompetent ass and written the proper questions in place of the poorly worded ones then gave the answers to both the written questions, and the shitty ones.

What he hadn't been expecting was for little miss Blondie to drop her pencil sharpener. The room was silent except for the quiet scratching of graphite over paper, so the little plastic sharpener was like a gunshot ringing out in the room. Still, Erik wasn't moving a damn muscle to help her when she bent down to pick it up from where it had bumped into his shoe. Really, he was tempted to throw the thing across the room, but that would have just been childish.

When she grabbed his ankle, however, he was more than prepared to kick her in the face.

"What the fuck?" he hissed, glaring down at the blonde while her fingers trailed over his shoe and finally landed on the sharpener.

"Sorry," she muttered. Once she was sitting upright in her chair, the blonde frowned and turned toward him. "I ran into you in the hallway…"

Her voice was so fucking sweet, he felt the sudden need to run down to the clinic and inject himself with insulin.  _'Might as well just have downed all of Willy Wonka's creepass choco-river.'_

"Right?"

"Yeah," Erik muttered. "So glad you could figure that out."

"You're kind of an asshole," she sighed while sharpening her pencil. "But…"

He glared at the blonde when she turned a gentle smile toward him.

"We didn't really get off on the right foot."

"More like the left, you clumsy ditz," he grumbled.

"Mm-hmm," she laughed. "So, anyway, I'm sorry about that. I didn't see you."

"Like I said before. Take off the stupid fucking glasses inside, and maybe it'd help you see better."

Her face fell and she frowned before turning back to her sketch book. "It really wouldn't."

"You do realize they're supposed to be used  _outside_  right?" he sneered. "As in, to protect your eyes from the sun."

"I don't really have that problem."

"No, because I'm sure you sleep with the stupid fucking things on. Wear them at night, too. Lock the Kardashians up, because Blondie over here is taking the nation by fucking storm with her stupid, way-too-fucking-big for her goddamn face, glasses."

"Well, I need them," she whispered. "And Dr. Reedus is watching you, so you should get back to work."

"You're not even looking at me," Erik countered. "How would you know if I'm working or not? Those things are cutting off at least thirty percent of your peripheral vision."

"Your pencil isn't moving," she answered. "I'd hear it."

"Right," he snorted. However, when he looked up, he saw that the professor was, in fact, watching him. And he didn't look happy. Erik was just trying to get through the class without being a thorn in anyone's side, but really… The shit this woman was doing just irked him to no fucking end. In the orphanage, they'd gotten  _some_  manners beaten into them by the old bastard that ran the place.

" _Don't wear a hat or sunglasses inside. Makes you look like a criminal."_

" _Don't take the last piece of food, or you're selfish."_

" _Don't stand on street corners or in doorways, or you'll look like a damn loafer."_

" _Gentlemen don't bathe in cologne. If you put too much on, I'll beat your ass, boy."_

Some of it was no-brainer shit, but most of the garbage that old man had rattled off while whipping Erik and the others with switches he'd made them get was just old-fashioned.

Still, he went back to his work. Ignoring the blonde for as long as he possibly could.

And then, when Dr. Reedus came by to check on their sketches and see how things were coming along - where he'd gotten quite the chuckle over Erik's piss-poor drawing of two moles sitting in a one liter beaker - the maroon-haired teen looked over curiously to see what she had drawn.

Not a goddamn thing, apparently. She'd just written a bunch of words in her sketch book that he finally realized was actually just a spiral notebook. Probably fucking love notes to her jock of a boyfriend. And even then, Dr. Reedus seemed to be more than pleased with what he saw.

As soon as they were given instructions to continue working on their sketches, Erik glared at her. And then he lucked out when their professor was called out of the room. Once he was gone, everyone began talking quietly, just loud enough that he knew they wouldn't really be paying attention to what he was about to say.

"What, you're too good for this shit?" Erik scowled.

"Excuse me?"

"These bullshit sketches we're doing. You're too good to do it like the rest of us?" Hey, he didn't want to be there, but he was at least putting the pencil to paper and drawing  _something_. She was actually paying for this class, and she was doing less than him.

"I can't sketch with pencil," she answered. "When we get to paint, then I'll paint, but until then… Dr. Reedus already knows, and he says I just have to write essays when it comes time to turn in sketches for an assignment."

"That's bullshit," Erik sneered. "You-"

"You're new here, aren't you."

"... So?"

She sighed and turned toward him, setting down her notebook and pencil. "My name is Lucy, by the way."

"I really don't give a fuck. I'm not planning on being in this pathetic excuse for a class much longer than I have to."

"You're not… an art student."

"Far fucking from it," Erik spat. "My major is actually worthwhile. I'll be able to contribute a whole lot more to society than drawing pretty pictures."

"What's your major?"

"Organic Chemistry."

"Hm, a science kid," Lucy nodded. "So, you're pretty good at it then. Know a lot of those fancy science words in latin that no one else understands?"

"Sure," Erik replied. His eye narrowed when she reached up to toy with her glasses, and then they were finally removed.

And that was when he felt his stomach scrambling right out of his ass and eating through the floor beneath him, guilt consuming the empty space left behind. The irises of her suddenly revealed eyes were a strange, nearly golden colour washed in a minty green. He couldn't see her pupils under the milky quality that washed over what he finally realized were unseeing eyes.

"Congenital amaurosis," Lucy said, listening to the sudden intake of breath from the student next to her. "I was born blind. So, no. It's not that I'm 'too good' to sketch things in pencil. I quite literally can't do it. I can't feel the lines."

"Y-You're… Oh, fuck me…"

"It's also why I ran into you in the hallway," she continued. "I didn't see you there, and I was distracted on the phone so I didn't hear you either."

"Shit, I'm uh…" He winced as she put her glasses back on.

"Don't apologize just because you pity me," Lucy said while turning back to the essay she was working on.

Erik cringed when the door to the classroom opened, revealing Dr. Reedus and the Head of the Science Department, Dr. Precht. A single nod from both professors and Erik was all but vaulting from his seat to get away from the extremely unfortunate fuck-up he'd made while talking to the blonde. Hopefully, they would give him some fabulous news. Like the fact that he was free from the art class and he could finally just attend the class he wanted.

Then again, by the looks on their faces, it wasn't looking so good.

* * *

Two months later, Erik was still in  _Advanced Painting 6477_. Apparently, he had enrolled after the add/drop grace period, and there was no way in hell he was going to have an Incomplete or a Withdrawal on his transcript. That shit was perfect, and he wasn't going to fuck it up now because of the administration being fucking retarded. So, Erik had gone another route.

Against the advisement of everyone he came in contact with, Erik added another class to his already extraordinarily full course load.  _Advanced Organometallic Compounds_  was now filling up the only free time Erik had, at seven in the morning on Fridays. He didn't get out of class until ten at night on Thursdays, and that was supposed to be his time to sleep in. At least now, he wouldn't be tempted to slack off, much like the idiot that was his roommate in the dorm.

Gajeel Redfox was going to make Erik go insane. He was sure of it. The only consolation was that the Architecture and Engineering major was quiet. The times he was loud, he was almost always on his way out of the room anyway and in the process of yelling about someone named Bunny Girl being a fucking psycho.

In that two months' time, Erik found himself utterly flummoxed by the blonde he was still sitting next to. He'd watched her painting in class, and he just couldn't figure out how the hell she managed to get the shit on the canvas to look like anything, when she had never seen anything as a point of comparison.

She used a combination of her fingers on the canvas and a paintbrush, sometimes just her fingers, but what he found at the end, when she was finally finished, was just fucking impressive. They always had simplistic subjects, a shadowed image that was insanely contrasted by bright splashes of colour in the background. But even the colors in the background were arranged in a way that it actually made an intensely beautiful picture with clear delineations between different objects.

Erik had never really been interested in art. Science was where the real beauty in the world lay, at least to him. But he was driven by the quest for knowledge. He wanted to know everything, and that was why, when Dr. Reedus had mentioned an idea he'd been toying with of people in the class partnering up to work together, as an experiment to try and meld their own creativity with another person's - because really, in the real world, there might be a time where they wouldn't be the only person working on something, and they needed to play well with others - Erik hadn't fought it.

Nor did he fight it when the pairings were decided a week later. In fact, he'd asked after the class where the pairings were revealed was finished, if he could work with Lucy. Their names were the only ones that weren't called. Erik knew his wasn't called because there was an even number in the class, and he would have been a third person in a group. Also, he still didn't want to be there, and the professor was really trying to help him out because of the scheduling mishap that he'd been dragged into.

Dr. Reed had been on the verge of telling him no, because Lucy couldn't work with someone in that particular instance - since she couldn't see what they were doing - but Erik had done what he always did. He convinced Dr. Reedus that he was right.

It was really just a matter of reminding the professor that he was, in fact, a science major, and research was something he loved. Erik had, begrudgingly, admitted that he wanted to know how she painted without being able to see, and how she could make artwork really come alive. He couldn't paint to save his damn life, unless someone wanted a picture that looked like it was done by a third-grader, but something he'd said had convinced the professor that it was a good idea. Why Erik had said it, he still wasn't sure, but it had worked.

" _I hate art, Dr. Reedus. It's pointless, but what she does… I can't understand it. Besides, if you pair me up with her, then she won't be either left out just because she can't see, or stuck with someone that's more interested in how famous she apparently is in this place than doing the work. I can't promise I'll give you anything worth looking at, or that I won't ruin what she paints with my piss-poor attempt at this shit, but I'll give it a shot. I really will do the work for it though, since it's not just me getting a grade on this. I just can't promise you won't want to punch me in the asshole for desecrating her work with my paintbrush."_

His words had made it seem like he really cared about the woman, which he didn't. It was more of the fact that he was constantly hearing other students in the class, and in the damn building, and across the fucking campus when he really listened, talk about Lucy. Some were focused on how she looked, not knowing that she was blind. Others were amazed by her art, some knowing she was blind while others didn't. And then there were the people that he'd caught conversations from about spending time with her, and how sweet and funny she was.

Stories about Lucy laughing so hard beer came out of her nose at a party. How she had rescued a small animal and took it to a veterinarian, only to find out that she'd picked up a baby porcupine and it was trying to make her its mother; from what he'd heard, she didn't keep the porcupine. The time she had been coerced into doing a handstand and broke her wrist, and how her older brother had taken it upon himself to beat someone named Natsu into the next century for it.

Erik met Natsu a week after hearing that particular story, and he completely understood the sentiment. He couldn't understand how the idiot was in college to begin with, but apparently sports scholarships were helpful things.

And so, Erik found himself walking into an art studio two miles away from campus to meet up with Lucy. She didn't seem too pleased by the prospect of working with him, he'd seen the small frown of disapproval before she'd sighed and nodded her understanding that it was mandatory, but he was banking on the tidbit of information that he'd heard about her. Lucy was a sweetheart that couldn't hold a grudge.

What he hadn't been expecting was to find his roommate kneeling on the floor and smoothing out a sheet of plastic, then laying a large section of canvas over it and setting paint cans on the corners.

"Gajy," Lucy called out from the back, carrying another two cans of paint and holding several paintbrushes under her chin. "Little help?"

"Bunny, yer fuckin' ridiculous," he laughed. "I'm here to do the heavy lifting, so put that shit down before you break a toe or something."

She paused in her step, her smile widening as the weight was suddenly lifted from her hands. She dropped the brushes to her hand, then looped her arm around one of her brother's muscular arms, letting him lead her to the canvas. "I'm pretty sure you're here to check out this Cobra guy I got paired up with."

Erik frowned at the sudden use of that nickname. It was one he had intentionally not used around anyone once he came to Fiore University. Back in Caelum, he'd gotten quite the reputation under that particular moniker, and he hadn't wanted it to follow him in a new fucking country.

Lucy paused and slowly tilted her head to one side. "He's here," she said.

"Huh?" Gajeel turned toward the door to find the one-eyed, maroon-haired roommate that he both loathed and loved having around staring back at him. "How the hell do you do that?"

"I smelled him," Lucy giggled. "Hi, Cobra."

"It's Erik," he scowled while walking further into the studio. "Don't call me…  _that_."

"O-Oh," Lucy whispered, a sheepish smile pulling at her lips. "Sorry, I heard everyone called you that, and I just… uh… sorry."

Gajeel scowled down at the shorter man, crossing his arms over his chest. " _You're_  her fuckin' partner?"

Erik shrugged. "Yep. And you're her brother?"

"Yep."

"Well…" Lucy stepped up to Gajeel's side, quietly nudging his ribs with her elbow. "This is kinda awkward."

"Bunny, I'm stay-"

"Gajeel Redfox," she warned.

"Bunny Heartfilia-Redfox," he growled right back.

"You are  _not_  staying just so you can glare at Erik the whole time. And don't even try to tell me you won't because I know you will, since your face is permanently set in 'angry dragon mode'. Besides, you've got a date, and I know that Bickslow is gonna come running down here if you're late just to see what's taking you so long, and then it'll turn into a whole clusterfuck of-"

"Fuckin' breathe!" Gajeel shouted over her, pressing his hand over her lips. He drew back a moment later with a yelp. "Who the fuck told you to start biting people?!"

Lucy's eyes narrowed. "Don't cut me off. Now, where was I?"

"Bickslow and a clusterfuck," Erik supplied, blinking in surprise when she smiled at him before her face morphed back into what had to be, hands-down, the scariest fucking scowl he'd ever seen. The old man in the orphanage didn't have shit on the five-foot-three blonde. Erik's grandmother would be proud to see that level of anger sitting on someone's face.

"Right, a clusterfuck," Lucy nodded. "You missed your last date with him because you had midterms last week, so you can't skip out on this one. Besides, you're all sweaty and you need to go shower-"

"Bunny-"

"- And I don't care if the two of you are just gonna end up naked and sweaty and covered in jizz and lube and probably some chocolate or some other weird shit-"

"Oh my god," Gajeel whispered, rolling his eyes. "Shut up…"

"Because he's a sweetheart, and he deserves a  _nice_  date with your ass. And goddamnit Gajeel, stop rolling your eyes at me. You know I'm right. Now, get moving before I call up Papa and tell him that you're not treating your boyfriend right."

Gajeel's jaw snapped shut and he glared at the blonde. "You tell my old man anything, and I'm telling him and your mom about this dickhole being your partner."

"I already did," Lucy smirked. "Mama says she loves you, by the way. And she said to call home every once in a while."

"Damnit," he grumbled. "I'll call her on my way then." Finally, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. There was just no winning this, and he knew it. "You've got everything you need?"

"Yep," she smiled, sighing when she felt his lips on her forehead. "Love you, Gajy."

"Yeah, love ya too, Bunny," he whispered. His crimson eyes lifted to glare venomously at his roommate. "I find out you made her cry again, and so fuckin' help me, I - FUCK! Stop fuckin' biting me!"

Lucy grinned up at her stepbrother. "Be nice. You're the one that has to share a room with him," she laughed. It had been pretty easy to figure out that her partner and her stepbrother's roommate were the same person. There were only so many 'constantly pissed Organic Chem majors' and she'd heard Erik talking in the background once while she was on the phone with Gajeel. "Now get going."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "I get it."

Erik watched the hulking man with crimson eyes stalk out of the studio then hop on a motorcycle and drive away. A more than awkward hush fell over the room, and he slowly turned back toward Lucy to find her kneeling on the floor by the paint cans. Even without being able to see, she was still able to get them open and lined up where they were needed.

"If you want to spare your clothes," she said softly, working on another can, "Then you might want to grab a smock from the wall. We're gonna be getting a little messy."

"Great," he mumbled. Really, he wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he knew he would be finding out relatively soon just how this was going to work. And he was more than ready to figure out how the hell Lucy could do what she did.

* * *

The pair had decided that, with Erik's insane schedule, they would work together on Fridays. They only had three weeks to complete the project, which meant that the entire day was spent - once he was finished with his ungodly (according to Lucy) morning class - in the studio. They wouldn't leave until well into the wee hours of the morning, with Erik having offered on the first Friday when they realized how late it was, to drive her back to her dorm.

And, on the final day, they were done around five o'clock. The painting was weird as hell, and he felt like a bit of an ass for not really contributing a whole lot, aside from having Lucy hand him paint and a brush, then showing him what patterns he was supposed to paint in the borders. Somehow though, it had turned out looking like fucking art, and something that he wasn't all that opposed to looking at in general.

And, in the three weeks that he and Lucy had been working on their project, with Erik running on mostly caffeine the entire time as it was anyway, he'd completely forgotten to try and figure out just what it was that made her so fucking good at this. Well, it wasn't so much that he'd forgotten, but he just hadn't been able to, and that bothered him.

So, with the paint drying on the canvas and Lucy standing at the sink washing out brushes, he made his way over and just decided to fucking ask her. There wasn't any harm in it, and he was sure that plenty of people asked her anyway.

"Lucy."

"Hm?"

"How is it you can paint without being able to see a fucking thing?"

"I told you already, Erik," she laughed. "And I know you watched me painting. I just feel my way."

"Right, and that would suffice as an answer if I was anyone else," he chuckled, pulling the brushes from her hands and setting them in the water to soak for a minute. "But I don't mean how do you get the shit on the canvas."

She frowned then, her smile slowly wilting into a small downturn to her lips. "Then what? There's nothing more to it."

"I mean, you've never seen a thing in your life," he sighed. "But you can paint as though you've seen the fucking world. How do you know what colours you're using? Whether they go together, or if they clash when you don't want them to? It just… makes no fucking sense."

He knew, and had figured out for the most part over the past several months of sitting next to Lucy twice a week in their shared class, that she was a smiler. You could tell what she was thinking, to a point, based on how she smiled, if you looked closely enough. And sure, he'd seen quite a few variances of them in the time he'd known her.

He'd seen her giddy, way-too-bright to be real, smile while laughing with her friends out on the streets or walking to class. Her 'Gajeel-only' smile, the one saved for when she was spending time with her stepbrother (Erik was more than thankful that the same woman had not somehow produced both Gajeel and Lucy, because that… he couldn't handle that mental picture). How she smiled while listening to music. The saddened one that would pull her lips up just a little less when something upset her.

But, with all the watching he'd apparently been doing, without realizing it, Erik had never seen this particular smile. It looked just like all the others, except that there was just the faintest hint of a blush on her cheeks. She shied away from him a little, turning her head in the other direction.

"I, um… No one's ever asked me that," she whispered.

"Really?" he frowned. Honestly, that was the first question he thought to ask her, before he'd ever seen what she could do with the shit, he wanted to know how she knew which colour she was grabbing.

"If you're not busy," Lucy said slowly. "I could, um… I could try to show you? We don't have to, since I know you've got other classes to-"

"Let's do it," Erik said, shaking himself free of his shocked stupor. A crash course in blind painting, that would be interesting. Besides, he'd been planning on having the rest of the day for the project anyway, so he was oddly free.

She nodded then grabbed his sleeve and slowly led her partner over to the wall with the latex paints. "Pick two," she said. "Doesn't matter what colour. Then, we'll need some plastic and we should be set."

Erik nodded, more to himself, and pulled two random cans from the shelves. "How much space?"

"Just enough for us." She paused to grab a few towels, tucking them under her arm.

He slowly led her through the studio, to the wall opposite where their project was at - because heaven forbid something happened to it, he was going to fucking cry - then set down the cans. After rolling out a length of plastic on the ground, he knelt down next to the blonde and waited for her to explain what was happening while she opened the cans.

"Okay," Lucy whispered. "Close your eyes, and trust me."

"Why?"

"Well, you can't really 'see' the colours the way I do if your eyes are open," she giggled. "I could blindfold you, but then people might think we're getting kinky."

"Ah," he chuckled. "And stars forbid the sweet Lucy Heartfilia-Redfox is thought to be into kink." The bright flush to her cheeks when she punched his arm, all while still laughing, let him know just a little more about the blonde. Was he really interested in bondage? No. He didn't have time for relationships to begin with, even just physical ones.

"Exactly," she huffed playfully. "I have an image to uphold. My brother is the one that's got the kink-closet."

"I know that's a fucking lie," he laughed. No matter how many piercings the guy had, Gajeel was, apparently, a total fucking softie. Erik had actually been forced to spend an entire night in the library because the guy was serenading his fucking boyfriend. And, according to the whispers in the dorms the next day while the two were passed out in a naked tangle of sheets and limbs, they'd kept up most of the floor with their… lovemaking.

Really, Erik hadn't wanted to know any of it. It was his roommate's life, so whatever. But, what he  _really_ hadn't wanted to know was what it sounded like. He'd never heard anyone moaning as loudly as Gajeel and Bickslow had been in the recording taken from the room next to theirs. And he definitely hadn't heard anyone saying 'I love you' so damn much. Then again, Erik had also never needed to beat someone to within an inch of their lives for joking about 'fags', but that day had been the exception.

It was also when he realized that Fiore was definitely different from Caelum. He'd almost believed it was really the same place, considering he'd moved to a country that used the same language. Sure, the streets were different, and the majority of people he came across had a lighter complexion than his own, but he was from the southern coast of Caelum, so he was already darker than most people that had been around him while he'd been in college in the north. The biggest difference though was that the people back in his home country just didn't give a shit about sexuality. He'd never heard a single person being teased for loving whomever they chose, until he came to Fiore. Granted, Erik hadn't been all that focused on relationships as a general rule.

"Yeah," Lucy laughed. "Gajy's too adorable for that nonsense."

"Adorable is the last fucking word I'd use to describe him."

"Because you don't see what I do," she whispered with a tender smile. "Bickslow does though, so all is well with the world."

"Well, help me see how you do, then," Erik whispered, finally closing his eye.

"Trust me?"

"Enough to not be able to see you picking up that fucking butcher knife and slaughtering my ass," he laughed.

"Damn…" She pulled the lid off of one can and tossed it onto the plastic, the metal clattering in the otherwise silent studio. "I guess I'll have to go with plan B."

"Which is?"

Lucy gently placed her hand on his arm, then slid it up to his shoulder. "Answering your question. How I see the colours. How I paint." She smiled and took a slow, deep breath, then continued. "Take your fingers and touch the paint. Swirl it around a little bit."

Erik frowned, but did as she said. He always thought paint was warm, but the sudden chill that crept up his fingers as they dipped into the unknown colour had him internally shivering. He slowly stirred the paint, letting himself just focus on what it felt like on his fingers. That just had to be how Lucy did it. Maybe there was a difference in the consistency of different colours based on their chemical composition. Why he hadn't thought of that before, Erik didn't know.

"What colour do you feel?" Lucy whispered.

"I don't," Erik said, his frown deepening. "It just feels like paint."

"You're thinking too much," she giggled, lightly squeezing his shoulder. "Just feel, Erik."

"Well, maybe if I had a point of comparison," he suggested. "Feel two different kinds, the changes in consistency…"

Her laughter only increased. "Erik, turn off the science."

"But that's what this is about," he replied. "It has to be."

"No… It doesn't. What colour do you  _feel_ , Erik?"

His eye slid open in his frustration and he glared down at the can, then the paint on his fingers. "It's green," he muttered.

Lucy shook her head and moved to kneel behind him. Her arm snaked around him, and she gently placed her fingers in the paint can, brushing over his own in passing. "That might be the colour that it is, but what do you feel? Without your sight, there's gotta be a feeling. Something visceral."

"It's just paint," he whispered. "There's nothing visceral about…" He paused and read the label on the can. "Latex paint."

"There's always more beneath the surface," she sighed. Really, it was easier with oil paints, but she didn't want to open those up if she didn't need to. They were a little more expensive than this, after all. "Let's try another one."

Erik reached over and pulled the other can closer, then removed the loosened lid and closed his eye while Lucy dipped her fingers, and his as she grabbed his hand, into the paint. He hadn't been able to see the colour, because he'd been intentionally trying to avoid it. Lucy didn't have the opportunity to cheat and see what the colour really was, so he was going to try it again. Maybe with a hand in two different cans, he would be able to feel the difference between them.

"I feel…" Lucy wiggled the fingers on her left hand, in the second can, humming in contentment. "Winter mornings and hot cocoa."

He frowned, his brow pinching in confusion. "I don't understand," he sighed. "They feel exactly the same."

"No," she giggled. The fingers on her right hand brushed over his knuckles. "This one is the ocean in fall. Like a breeze that carries in on the wind, and you can just smell the freedom." Her other hand moved again. "And this one. It's waking up to the first snow of the season and curling up with hot cocoa. It's warm and soothing, but just a little chilly if you move too far from the cup. Can't you feel it?"

"It's yellow," he whispered as he opened his eye to see the second can. "Most people think of sunshine and happy shit when they see yellow. Or fear."

She couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh at that. Her chin rested on his shoulder as their hands withdrew from the cans. After lifting the towels from the floor by her side, she handed one to Erik while cleaning her hands off. "Maybe that's normal," Lucy mused, "But I've never seen any of those things. I can only judge based on how things sound or smell or taste."

Erik froze in cleaning his hands to see hers, one with yellow fingers and one with green, wrapping around to gently grasp at his towel.

"Or how they feel," Lucy finished as her partially clean fingers brushed over the backs of Erik's hands. She bit her lip and ignored the flush on her cheeks when he stayed silent, but the blonde could feel his gaze weighing on her hands as she used the towel to clean up.

Erik's brow furrowed as he watched her hands deftly moving the towel. He didn't think he would ever be able to do what she did. It wasn't even about painting, but just her day-to-day life. Hell, he'd had a hard enough time adjusting - and getting his license - after the accident that took his right eye. Depth perception was wholly nonexistent in his life by that point, but he made it work somehow.

Just like Lucy did.

She'd just had a lot more time and no other points of comparison. This was what she'd always known, the world without light or sight. But, he was definitely curious, his inner scientist never far behind in any situation. "So," he whispered, "What do you feel when you touch me?"

"Soft hands," she whispered back with a small smile. She couldn't help the sharp intake of breath as his hands turned to let her feel his calloused fingers. "But still strong."

His eye took in the way her fingers slithered over his skin, exploring every little detail she could. He smirked when she applied a little more pressure to his knuckles, feeling the ones he'd broken by getting into fights over the years. He might be a total fucking nerd, and several years younger than the people in his class, but that didn't mean he let anyone push him around for it.

"You're a fighter," Lucy continued. "Or… you just really like punching walls."

Erik chuckled and gently grasped her hands, then lifted them to his chest. He was going to studiously ignore the fact that her overly large bust was pressed against his back, and that her arms were now wrapped around him. "What else?"

Lucy's lips turned down and she tilted her head toward him. "You want me to…" She really made a habit of not touching people unless they gave her permission. Most people didn't like randomly getting groped just so that she could 'see' who she was talking to. Hell, the only way she knew who some people were was by their hands, because that was all they were comfortable allowing her to touch.

"I want to know how you see me," Erik replied, smiling at the confusion in her voice and sitting plainly on her face. "Will you tell me?"

Lucy gave him a shy smile, nodding while her hands slowly glided up from where he'd rested them on his chest to his throat. "So far, I hear anger when I talk to you. And pain. But you're curious about everything. I guess that's part of being a super genius scientist?"

Erik chuckled softly, his eye closing as her fingers paused to feel his throat while he laughed. The tips danced across his chin and up to the dimples on his cheeks.

"You have a nice smile," Lucy whispered, her fingers gliding over his lips. On her next breath, she found an answering smile on her face. "I smell... coffee at two in the morning. Y'know, when you're pulling an all-nighter?"

"Coffee, huh?" he chuckled. "I practically live on the stuff, so that's not surprising."

"Well, this is like…" She bit her lip indecisively, then decided to just go with it. Erik had let her touch him to find out what she saw, and this one thing - while she didn't do it that often, because it weirded people out a little bit - was pretty damn helpful.

He gulped when Lucy's nose pressed against the side of his neck, then slid up to just behind his ear while her fingers pushed into his hair. He felt her small, shallow breaths as though they were the only thing keeping his blood pumping, easily letting her tilt his head to the side so she had better access.

"That's it," Lucy whispered into his ear. "It's your skin."

"My… skin?" he asked shakily. He felt her lips pulling up into a smile against his earlobe, and nearly failed to suppress a groan when she spoke again.

"Your skin is like coffee," she said softly. "You know how great a cup of coffee smells when you really need it? Like the heavens just opened up and dropped the Holy Grail on your desk. It's sweet to give you a sugar rush, strong with more caffeine than is probably healthy, but… Addicting."

Erik was sure, right then and there, that Lucy was going to kill him if she didn't stop whispering in his ear. Sure, she had no idea his ears were so fucking sensitive, but between her silky voice, her lips, and feeling her body against him and her fingers dragging through his hair, he was on the verge of begging her to put him out of his misery.

"Coffee and cherries," Lucy grinned, finally moving back to resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Ch-Cherries?" Erik was internally cursing the stammering buffoon that had taken control of his body. At least he wasn't just cumming everywhere like a little bitch. That, he would kill himself over.

She nodded, her fingers twirling little sections of his soft, spiked hair. "Your hair feels like cherries. Dark and sweet."

Lucy's fingers finally left his hair to touch his ears, and she froze. A frown swept away her smile when she felt the pointed tips that were so different from anything she'd ever come across before.

"Guess you never pictured that…" Really, he was more than ready to throw in the towel. Whispering in his ear was one thing, but touching both of them… Damn, was it amazing. He was surprised that he wasn't just a panting, bumbling mess right then and there. Hell, occasionally when he needed to work himself off, he'd grab his  _own_  fucking ear and tease the tip of it. That shit got him every time.

Her smile returned once again at the slightly embarrassed tremor in his voice. "I never pictured anything, Erik. I didn't think you'd let me do this."

"Elective surgery," he chuckled. "I had a thing for elves when I was younger…" And really, he'd gotten it done only six months before moving to Fiore. He still had a thing for elves, but he wasn't going to admit that shit to anyone. Or the fact that, while severely sleep-deprived he'd made the decision to have surgery to get fucking elf ears because he wanted to be one. Nope, that was going to the grave with him. Then again, maybe it wasn't... He'd pretty much just told Lucy that damn secret.  _'Fuck...'_

"Such a nerd," Lucy giggled. She moved on from his ears to his eyebrows, down the length of his straight, thin nose, then paused and gasped when she felt the scar running onto his cheek. One hand tenderly moved up to feel his closed eye without a scar, that it was still there, while the other pressed lightly to the scarred skin only to find his right eye was missing.

"They're not joking when they say to wear goggles in the lab…"

"O-Oh?" she asked.

"Yep, sophomore year in high school. Some asshole switched the vials out while I wasn't looking. I ended up mixing potassium with water, and… Boom. Glass right in the eye."

"Well, shit. They couldn't save it?"

He shrugged then. It was weird as hell having someone else touch his face, especially his scar. No one touched him, and he normally didn't want them to. But, he'd offered to let Lucy do it, and he was finding it oddly relaxing that she just kept running her fingers over his scar and empty socket. Maybe because it was her way of studying things, and it called to his inner knowledge-seeker. "The guy that ran the orphanage said he wasn't made of money, so he wouldn't sign anything that was insanely expensive. The doctors had to just sew it up after getting the glass out."

Her mouth clamped shut and her hands dropped from his face. "You were… in an orphanage?"

"Yeah," he shrugged again. "My parents got killed in a car accident when I was five. The cops came to my Granny's house and told her, and she just handed me over to 'em. She was too old to take care of me for more than a few hours, so it made sense."

And really, he'd gotten to see the old woman again a few years after he was put in the orphanage. She was a crass, pink-haired terror, and probably the reason he was such an asshole most of the time, but his 'Granny Porly' came to visit at least once a month when she was able to make the trip.

It wasn't a matter of him being unloved, because he knew that she cared. She just couldn't care for a little kid properly full-time. And, when he was a little older, and had asked to come home with her, she would just scowl down at him and say that her home was too small. She wasn't going to force him to sleep on the couch when there was a perfectly good bed right there in the orphanage.

The fact that he'd lost his eye and the man running the orphanage hadn't wanted to foot the bill to try and save it at all had her nearly ripping the bastard's head off, but it had also been when she finally told Erik that he could come live with her.

"That's…" Lucy's frown deepened. Really, she had no idea what to say to it all.

"Eh, it was for the best. I got to go live with her eventually though, after she found out what happened with my eye. She's the reason I'm even able to pay for college in the first place."

"She sounds sweet," Lucy whispered.

A sharp bark of laughter spilled past his lips. "Granny Porly looks like she sucked on a lemon, and she fucking hates everything," he laughed. "But yeah, she's sweet… Sorta."

Lucy sighed as he lifted her hands to his face again. She retraced the lines of his face, trying to memorize just what he felt like, and that was when she found herself frowning again. "Erik…"

"Hm?"

"You've only got one eye."

"Right."

"How, uh… How have you been driving me home?"

"You mean because I have no depth perception with only one eye?"

"Y-Yeah." The dark chuckle that escaped him had her shuddering.

"Well, back home, I was called Cobra," he whispered. "I won't go into why, but I had enough of a reputation that the guy at the DMV was on the verge of pissing himself when I said I wasn't leaving until I had my license back."

"The bullshit was strong with you that day, wasn't it," she snorted.

"Yes, and no," he grinned. "I was willing to do what I threatened, but I was lying when I said I would have enjoyed it."

"That's just… scary."

"Which is why I don't want people here calling me Cobra," he sighed. "New country, new start. All that matters is my perfect transcript here."

Her thumb ran over the empty socket again, and a serene smile pulled at her full lips. "You see more than you let on, don't you?"

"I only have one eye," he chuckled, turning to look at her. "I see worse than most people."

"Usually, it's the ones that have the worst eyesight that see the most…" Her fingers slid down to his lips, and she gasped as he grabbed her hand and his lips pressed against hers.

Erik wanted a whole lot more than the piddly little kiss he'd gotten, but really, he had no fucking clue what he was doing. He'd never made time for relationships, far too focused on his studies to care about it to begin with, and while it had served him well, because he hadn't been distracted, he was wishing he'd had a little more experience right then. _'Eighteen. Never been kissed. God that's lame…'_

Then again, based on the startled squeak that came from the blonde, neither had she. And he already knew that she was a few years older than him.

Lucy unconsciously followed as his lips left hers, her eyes slowly opening. "Wh-What was that for?"

Erik found the flush on her cheeks fucking adorable. "Just trying to see things your way," he smirked.

"O-Oh…"

It was while he was looking into her unseeing eyes as a heavy silence fell over the studio that he found himself getting lost in them. Lucy was an anomaly, something he'd been more than happy to study, but the sudden burning in his gut and the way his heart stuttered just a little while looking at the milky copper orbs had him wanting to know more about her. Not as an experiment or to sate his thirst for knowledge.  _'Fuck me, she's beautiful…'_

His hand slowly lifted to cup her cheek, his thumb brushing just under her eye while he turned his body to fully face her. "I never realized how beautiful your eyes are…"

"... Wh-What?"

"I guess they were supposed to be brown," he whispered. "But they're this strange copper… No…"

Lucy gasped as she felt his calloused thumb tenderly circling beneath her eye. She could hear him grinning as he spoke again. The intrigue in his voice, and a small bit of wonder.

"Oxidized copper," he chuckled. "That's it! A hint of green, pale… Almost glowing…"

Suddenly, Lucy hated that she couldn't see, especially when she lifted her hands to his face once more and felt just how wide his smile was, the deep dimples in his cheeks and the small crinkled corner of his eye.

She'd never had a problem with not being able to see, since it was just the way things were for her. She'd been born this way, and no matter what anyone had said to her about it - the normal childhood teasing that everyone went through to some extent - Lucy hadn't let it affect her. Even Gajeel had teased her for several months when their parents had started dating, but he'd eventually stopped once he realized that Lucy and her mother were going to be a bigger part of his and his father, Metallicana's, lives.

But now, she just wished more than anything that she could see Erik. Just once. "I… don't know what that looks like," she reminded him.

"No, but… What if I could show you?"

She nibbled her lip anxiously. "How?"

"The same way you showed me yellow and green," he chuckled. The idea had formed so quickly, he hadn't a clue where it came from, but they had plenty of time to do it. "Come with me. We've still got paint on our hands."

Lucy nodded, and smiled when she heard him placing the lids back on the cans of paint. She stood along with Erik, letting him lead her over to the sink, then washed her hands while he put the supplies away.

He walked up behind her, chewing his cheek while his arms wrapped around the blonde and his hands joined her soapy ones beneath the running water. Slowly, he took her hands in his and started washing them for her, getting the spots that she had missed before she could finish rinsing her hands.

Lucy bit her lip to hold back a shy smile as his chin rested on her shoulder, much like she had done with him on the floor. "A-All clean?" she whispered as he turned off the water and gently dried her hands.

"Yep." Erik led Lucy over to where they kept their bags, then smirked as she laced her fingers with his while they left the studio. Instead of taking her to his car, he turned right and they walked down the street toward a little shop on the corner.

"What are we doing?"

Erik opened the door and led her inside, heading directly for the counter with the silver-haired clerk standing behind it and giving them a bright smile. "Taste test time," he whispered to the blonde.

"What can I get for you guys today?"

Lucy's smile widened at the sound of Mira's voice. "Ice cream?" she giggled as Erik placed his hand on her lower back.

"Yep," he smirked. He looked over the different flavors that were set out behind the glass, and his eye lit up when he spotted just the one he needed. "This one," he said while pointing to the container.

Mira tilted her head curiously while grabbing a tasting spoon and scooping some onto it.

"I know you like chocolate," he said to the blonde once he had the spoon in his hand, "But it's time for an experiment." Really, he'd discovered Lucy's near obsession with chocolate over the past few months, since she almost always ate a candy bar on the small break they had between the first and second halves of the lecture period.

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "Such a science nerd…"

"Hell yes," he shot back with a proud grin. He pulled his hand from her back and lifted her fingers to the spoon. "But first, you have to touch it."

Lucy laughed again and shook her head in exasperation. Her fingers lightly touched the ice cream and she smirked while saying, "It feels like ice cream."

"Soft and cold, right?"

Lucy frowned at that. "My eyes are cold?"

Neither saw the way Mira's eyes widened as she watched the two of them, finally noticing that Lucy wasn't wearing the sunglasses that she was always sure to keep on while in public. She looked from the sightless blonde to the usually scowling man - even when he stopped in for ice cream, he was scowling - then over to a table that was holding Lucy's brother, Gajeel, and his boyfriend of two years, Bickslow. Every Friday night, the two men would come in for ice cream as part of their date. And this night was no different, except that now they were both intently watching Lucy interacting with Erik.

"First impression," Erik said. "When you don't understand it… Now, taste." He brought the spoon to her lips, watching as he pushed it into her mouth. The way her eyes widened in surprise had him smirking again. "Mint," he whispered. "Chilly, breathtaking…"

Lucy blinked as she bit down into a little bar of dark chocolate, making a small sound of surprise.

"And chocolate to warm you up again."

She swallowed and slowly licked her lips. "This is…"

"Your eyes," he whispered. "What they look like…"

"R-Really?"

"Yep." He paused as she smiled up at him. "And how I feel when I look at them…"

A giddy laugh left the blonde as her cheeks flamed more brilliantly. "What about your eye. What colour is it?"

Before Erik could even look for a flavor of ice cream that reminded him of his own indigo eye, Mira was holding out two tasting spoons with a white and red swirled concoction on them. He narrowed his eye at her too-bright smile, then saw her wink while nodding down to the container it had come from.  _'Love Potion #32… Seriously?'_

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, and allow the matchmaking ice cream shop clerk have her way, he took the spoons and handed one to Lucy. "This colour," he said, "According to Mira, here."

Lucy popped the spoon in her mouth, sighing in contentment as she tasted white chocolate and cherry ice cream. She absolutely loved the taste of cherries. While she let the ice cream melt in her mouth, the blonde blinked in surprise at the sudden feel of a heart-shaped chocolate on her tongue. She bit into it, only to taste the sudden burst of cherry that had been encased inside mixing with the ice cream.

"That's definitely it," Erik chuckled after swallowing his own bite. She turned her face up toward his, almost as though she could see him - most likely as a learned habit over the years. "... When I look at you."

The way she blushed even more brightly, and the low curse he heard from her brother a few tables away, along with his boyfriend kicking him under their table to keep him seated, had Erik's smile widening.

"O-Oh," Lucy whispered.

He nibbled his lip for a moment, then took one of her hands in his. "I don't have to get back to doing any homework for a bit, so…"

"So…?"

"Have some ice cream with me?" he whispered.

Lucy very intentionally ignored the fact that she could hear Gajeel grumbling about Erik hitting on his little sister. "Like a… um… a date?"

"Yep," Erik chuckled.

Lucy nodded happily, turning back toward the counter as Erik draped an arm over her shoulder. "I'll have that second one, Mira."

"Mint chocolate chip for me," Erik added with a smirk.

* * *

The semester came to a close, and as the spring semester was under way, Erik and Lucy were in a relationship. He'd decided, much to the blonde's surprise, to lighten his workload and be a normal fucking person for a change by only taking four classes at once instead of his usual six (or, for the previous semester, seven). He had more than enough free time on his hands, but he simply filled that with spending time with Lucy. And, by extension, he spent time with Gajeel and Bickslow.

Things had been a little on the awkward side at first, having his girlfriend's brother as a roommate, and Erik had, in an effort to put the guy at ease and hopefully stop the fucker from teabagging him in his sleep with his nuts painted hot pink to have as evidence the next day, just come clean about whatever the hell her stepbrother and his boyfriend wanted to know.

What were Erik's intentions with Lucy? His snarky reply had been that he wanted to skin her alive and study her. Bickslow had struggled to hold Gajeel back from beating his ass, so Erik waved him off and told him the truth. He wanted to date her, and since he'd never dated anyone before, he was taking his sweet fucking time getting to know her.

Was Erik going to push her into sleeping with him? No. Hell fucking no. He hated admitting it, but he told Gajeel and Bickslow that, yes, he was a damn virgin and just the thought of Lucy even being in just lingerie made him fucking lightheaded. The teasing he'd gone through for the next three days by the two was well deserved, to be honest.

Was he going to agree to meeting Layla and Metallicana? Sure, whenever Lucy offered to have him meet them. He really didn't mind.

What were his parents like? Dead. He really shouldn't have enjoyed the way Gajeel got smacked in the head by Bickslow over that one. So, he'd told the two about his crotchety grandmother, and had mentioned that, should he and Lucy be together long enough, he'd introduce the blonde to her.

What did he like to do in his free time? He'd answered honestly by saying that he never had free time, which Gajeel had backed up, but also added that his only free time was spent with Lucy. Several months later, it was still mostly true. If he wasn't busy with homework or with Lucy, then Erik was reading. Or experimenting on something.

What's the craziest thing he'd ever done? He had sworn Gajeel and Bickslow to secrecy, then told them about the time that he'd dragged a guy through the school parking lot, butt naked, tied him to a pole with barbed wire, and then had a snake he'd 'borrowed' from a local pet store poison the fuck out of him. It was how he'd gotten the nickname Cobra, but no one had asked why he'd done it. Namely, it had been because the piss-ant had decided to rape the one girl in the orphanage and he didn't even get put on trial for it. After Sorano killed herself, Erik decided to take it into his own hands. Everyone knew he did it, but there hadn't been any evidence that it was him, so he got off scot free. The guy in question had been too terrified, and too brain damaged after the poison had sat in his system for so long, to point the finger.

After the interrogation from her brother, Erik had then needed to deal with figuring out just how a relationship with Lucy would work in the first place. He didn't know whether he was supposed to hold doors open for her, like he'd been taught and because she was blind, or anything else.

Luckily, the blonde had a habit of smacking him in the back of the head when he was doing something wrong - namely, babying her as though she wasn't capable of doing things on her own - and then giving him a sweet smile and a tender kiss after he apologized.

The fact that people said he was pussy-whipped didn't even faze Erik. Really, when he'd found out that Lucy had been in a few relationships with guys that had only been after her as a bet, or some other fucked up reason, Erik had grown even more determined to show her that he wasn't a thing like them. Then again, Lucy already seemed to know that. And, as he'd found out, she didn't just smack  _him_  in the head. Gajeel and Bickslow both got the same treatment from her, so really, he was taking that shit as a good sign since she did it to them a whole lot more than to him.

And still after several months, as the spring semester came to a close and everyone was deciding what they would be doing over the summer break, Erik and Lucy were going strong. He actually found himself missing having a class with her, but he got over it.

And, when Lucy had mentioned that she and Gajeel usually went home for the summer, and asked Erik if he was interested in joining - even though he'd yet to meet her parents - the maroon-haired teen found himself seriously considering it.

And then he'd talked to his fucking grandmother. Apparently, she wanted him to come home for the summer. It wasn't that her health was deteriorating, but she'd apparently figured out the internet and wanted to grill his ass on the blonde girl that was suddenly popping up in the pictures he posted on Facebook. Or, mainly that he was being tagged in so many of them with her. The line of questions she'd put his ass through over the phone had only been the tip of the iceberg, he just knew it.

He already knew that he was going to blow her off, though. It wouldn't be too difficult to just take a couple classes online over the summer, and say that he was too busy. She was more than supportive of his continued persistence in his studies, and he usually did take summer classes anyway so he could be done with school that much faster. Granted, his grandmother had suggested he become a surgeon or some other medical doctor, because she'd said that there weren't enough smart doctors in the world and at least he had a halfway decent head on his shoulders, but it just hadn't interested Erik.

Science had always been where his interests laid, and it was why he was going to get his doctorate in chemistry. And now, Lucy was tied with it. She might even be pulling slightly ahead of science where his interests were concerned, he wasn't sure.

And so, as he walked into an art gallery that Saturday evening after finals week was done, Erik was instantly searching for his beautiful blonde girlfriend. It wasn't too hard to spot her standing off to one side, talking with Gajeel who was wearing his leather biker's jacket and Bickslow who was appropriately dressed for an art show in dark grey dress pants and a lighter grey silk shirt.

Her hair was pulled into a low, elegant bun. A simple black dress cinched her already tiny waist and draped over her hips to her knees, and black leather flats were covering what he'd come to realize were adorable feet. He already knew that Lucy didn't wear heels, since it made her a little more unstable, but it was the sight of her not wearing her sunglasses for a change - something he'd learned Lucy only did when they were alone - that had Erik pausing in the entrance.

_'Damn... I'm a lucky bastard...'_

Two sets of crimson eyes locked onto him, and Erik forced his feet to move and his lungs to pull in more oxygen while Bickslow and Gajeel turned their attention back to Lucy.

By the time he'd reached the radiant blonde, he was feeling a little more like himself, but once his hand slipped into hers and she turned to smile up at him, he found the room growing hotter by the second.

"Hey, handsome," Lucy sighed happily as the familiar calluses slid over her palm.

"Hey yourself, love," Erik whispered, leaning in to lightly kiss her cheek. He glanced to Gajeel and Bickslow. "Fucknugget. Bix."

"Go fuck yerself, Breaking Bad," Gajeel smirked.

"Hey, Erik," Bickslow chuckled.

Lucy gently squeezed Erik's hand and he turned to look at her gentle smile. "Ready to show me some art?" he whispered.

"Definitely," she giggled. The two couples slowly walked through the gallery, pausing at some of the pictures. "I wish I could see these," Lucy sighed. "They sound beautiful when people tell me about them…"

"Yours are the only ones I care about, y'know," Erik whispered as they continued on. Really, he'd only made an appearance because Lucy's work was being showcased. He was sure it was the same reason that Gajeel and Bickslow were there as well.

"W-Well, you'll know them when you see them," she said with a blush.

They rounded a corner and Erik froze when he saw a series of portraits hanging along one wall. The coloring was what let him know that Lucy was the artist for the majority of them, but in the very center there was one that just took his fucking breath away.

A portrait of himself.

"L-Lucy?"

"You see it?" she grinned hopefully.

A breathless laugh escaped him as they moved closer to the portrait in question. He was suddenly stunned into silence by just how lifelike the painting was, with the only real difference being the colour palette ranging from reds and greens to deep brown and black. He already knew that Lucy didn't normally paint that way, simply because she'd told him that she had a hard time differentiating between red and brown when she tried switching between them. His eye was the only thing that was truly the right color, with the bright amethyst orb holding such intensity that he could nearly feel it piercing his soul.

Most of her artwork had a black foreground image with a brightly colored background, but this… She'd made him the focus of the painting, and instead had used a black background and bordered the canvas with a green mist. He didn't look angry in the slightest in the portrait, and was instead smiling the way he knew he did when Lucy was around.

"H-How did you…"

Lucy moved a little closer, tucking herself into his side and resting her head on his shoulder. "I wanted everyone else to see what they usually miss," she whispered fondly. Since they had started dating, Lucy had finally found someone that she had really connected with. Erik was smart, funny, and just enough of a dick to keep up with Gajeel. He didn't baby her like most people did when they found out she was blind, and the two had quite a few laughs when he seemingly forgot all about it and tried to show her something.

No one had ever done that before. Her family and friends were all too aware of her limitations, but Erik made her really feel like a normal girl for once in her life.

His gaze strayed to the border and when Erik leaned a little closer, he shook his head as realization hit. "You used oxidized copper," he whispered in wonder. "This is… How  _you_  see me?"

"I think so," Lucy winced. "I hope it looks the way you feel… But…"

Forgetting just where they were, and mostly not giving a shit anyway, Erik turned with the blonde in his arms and brought his lips to hers. She squeaked in alarm, and he couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh as he lightly nipped at her lips. "It's perfect, love," he sighed. "Absolutely fucking perfect."

With a flushed face, both from arousal and embarrassment, Lucy smiled sweetly at her boyfriend while placing a gentle hand on his cheek. Her thumb lightly brushed over his scar, the lashes of his closed-over eyelid grazing the tip. "You're perfect, Erik," she whispered, stifling a moan as Erik swooped down and kissed her more intensely.

"Holy shit, baby girl. That's some fine fuckin' art!"

Erik blinked in surprise as Lucy went rigid, then broke away from the kiss to whirl around and face the owner of the deep rumbling voice off to his left. Really, the man had gained everyone's attention with his statement, but the shrill screech from the blonde in his arms, and how she ripped herself away from him to throw herself into another man's enormously muscular arms, had Erik very nearly shitting his pants.

"Papa! You came!"

 _'That's... Fuck, that's her old man?!'_ Erik thought.

"Yer fuckin' right I came," he laughed as the sweet blonde girl barreled into him. His arms wound around her and his nose nestled in her hair while deep crimson eyes narrowed on the tanned teenager that had previously been manhandling her. "But, am I gonna need to beat some ass? Looks a little scrawny."

"Meta, be nice."

Erik's jaw clamped shut while looking from the man that was, in essence an older version of Gajeel - piercings, wild raven hair, and all - over to a blonde woman just off to his side. If he'd had any doubts that Lucy would be just as beautiful when she got older, they were dashed as he took in the sight of what he belatedly realized was his girlfriend's mother. The only difference between them, aside from age, was that her mother's eyes were a deep honey brown. What he could only assume would have been Lucy's same eyes if she hadn't been born blind.

"I'll be nice when he stops lickin' my baby girl's fuckin' tonsils, Layla," Metallicana growled.

"Papa," Lucy laughed. "Erik's allowed to lick my tonsils, not that he was doing that. He's my boyfriend."

Erik gulped when her stepfather's eyes burned more brilliantly.

"Since when-"

"Meta," Layla laughed. "Lucy told us about Erik months ago."

"Then the hit I sent out didn't fuckin' take…"

"Nah, old man," Gajeel chuckled. "He's a snaky little fuck." He pulled away from Bickslow's side to press a tender kiss to Layla's cheek. "Hey, Mama. Still lookin' like a cougar."

"Gajeel," Bickslow cackled. "Sometimes I wonder how gay you really are."

"Gay enough to lay yer ass out-"

"Oh-kay!" Erik said, clearing his throat and stepping forward. "I hear enough about just how fucking gay you two are for each other on a daily basis."

"You got a problem with my son bein' gay?" Metallicana sneered.

"Uh…" Erik frowned and looked down at Lucy, then over to Gajeel and Bickslow, and finally back to his girlfriend's parents. "No? I mean, aside from when I'm trying to sleep, and they're jerking each other off like… five feet away from me."

"The dorm room really isn't big enough," Bickslow chuckled. "Hey, Metallicana. Miss Layla."

Layla shook her head while she was pulled into her stepson's boyfriend's arms. "Two years, Bickslow. I think you can just call me Layla."

"Or Mom," Lucy teased, finally pulling herself away from her stepdad to hug her mom. "Hey, Mama. So… This is Erik."

"And his portrait," Layla giggled. Just as her daughter was pulling away, she leaned down and loudly whispered, "And just so you know, he's a sexy one."

"Oh my god," Gajeel groaned. "Don't start this shit…"

Erik cleared his throat again, tentatively thrusting his hand forward to Metallicana. Once it was caught in a bruising grip, with Erik not showing an ounce of the pain his poor, poor fucking hand was in, he said, "Erik Vivas."

"Metallicana Redfox." His crimson eyes narrowed for a moment. "Are you trying to fuck my little girl?"

Lucy choked on her spit. Layla scowled and pinched her husband's side. Gajeel and Bickslow snorted in amusement.

Erik, for his part, didn't do a whole lot of thinking, and instead let whatever came to mind fly out of his mouth. "Well, it'd be a little inappropriate to bend her over a sculpture and start banging her in front of you, but…"

He refused to admit that he whimpered when Metallicana's grip on his hand tightened.

"No, I'm not trying to fuck her," Erik finished. "Unless peeling her skin off and using it as a pocket pussy is considered fucking her."

There was a pregnant silence with everyone watching as Metallicana's grip on Erik's hand tightened even further, the bones audibly shifting. They stared into each other's eyes, the larger man's crimson battling with his single indigo, then they all let out a collective breath when Metallicana started cracking up, pulling the deeply tanned teen into a half hug.

"You ain't half bad, kid!"

Lucy blushed when she felt her mother's gaze on her, giving a helpless smile in response. Once she knew Erik was facing her and her mother, she said, "Mama, I'd like you to meet Erik."

Erik suddenly realized that, while it seemed like a halfway decent idea to make a sick joke to Lucy's stepfather - especially considering the guy had approved of it - it wasn't necessarily the impression he wanted to make on her mother. Then again, he wasn't really all that accustomed to caring what other people thought of him. "Miss-"

He froze as the older woman stepped forward with a gentle smile on her face, one that was strikingly similar to the ones Lucy gave him sometimes.

Her hands lifted to his cheeks, with one thumb brushing over his scar as she looked into his slightly widened eye. "Please, dear," Layla whispered, "Just call me Layla."

"Uh… Alright."

She let out a quiet laugh as Lucy began talking with their family, then looped her arm with Erik's and led him a little bit away from the group, closer to the portrait her daughter had painted of him. While looking at the piece, she sighed. "So, this is how she sees you?"

"From what she says, yeah."

"What's that border made out of?" Layla frowned. "Lucy doesn't use anything but paint, normally."

Erik chuckled then. "Oxidized copper. That's what color her eyes are."

Layla blinked while turning to look at him, her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion. "Oxidized copper?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I took her down to the lab last semester and showed her how to mix vinegar, ammonia, and salt to speed up the oxidation process of copper that naturally happens with water and air. She turned three dollars worth of pennies green before we decided to stop."

Layla laughed again and tilted her head at the spark that appeared in Erik's eye while he spoke, both about science and about her daughter. "Why did you decide to date my daughter, Erik?"

He bit his lip and looked right into her honey-colored eyes. "You want the truth?"

"Of course."

"I still don't know," he chuckled. "One minute, I was working with her on a project, trying to figure out how she can paint and not be able to see… And the next… My hands were covered in paint and I was kissing her. Then I was taking her to get ice cream, and here we are..."

Layla blinked in surprise, looking back over to her sightless daughter as she was tucked under Metallicana's arm. "This isn't some game to you, is it?"

"No," he frowned. "Why-"

"Because, if it is, I don't want you to come around her ever again. You can leave right now, and no one will fault you. But, if I find out that this is just-"

"Look," Erik sighed. "Lucy's told me about the guys that she's dated, and I can promise you, I'm nothing like them."

"And how would I know that?" Layla frowned.

"You wouldn't. But, I'd say you should put some trust in your daughter and her overprotective brother, and his damn boyfriend… Both of which teased the hell out of me when they found out I've never dated anyone before her."

"And why is that?" Layla asked with narrowed eyes. "Too good to date?"

"No. I was too busy leaving everyone in my class in the fucking dust," Erik grinned. "I was the top of my class in Caelum University, Layla. And my Granny wanted me to make it so I could do anything I wanted. That meant getting top grades. I didn't bother with making friends, or anything else, because I was - and still am - focused on my education."

"Then why would you date my daughter?" Layla asked. "Being in a relationship takes time, and one with Lucy will take more time because of her-"

"No fucking offense," Erik scowled, keeping his voice low so he didn't draw any attention to their conversation. "But you can go choke on a bag of dicks if you think there's something wrong with Lucy."

"She's blind, Erik," Layla sighed.

"Yeah, I know. Big fucking deal. She gets as much of my time as she wants,  _because_  she's my girlfriend. I made sure I had time to spend with her by cutting down to only four classes a semester, but that's not because she's blind. Hell, I forget she is more often than not because she doesn't act like she can't see a damn thing."

Layla blinked in surprise while staring at the tanned teenager before her. "You… what?"

"I said I forget she's blind," he huffed. "I can't tell you how many times I've asked her to proofread something for me only to get smacked in the head. But she smiles anyway, and I still don't know why…"

"You…" She turned to look at her family again, watching as Lucy sighed while Metallicana led her through the milling people to look at her other artwork. "You forget?"

"That's what I said."

"And you don't treat her differently?"

"No. Why should I?" he replied. "She doesn't treat me any differently for only having one eye and no depth perception. Or for being an asshole."

"No," Layla laughed softly. "I guess she wouldn't."

"And besides," he shrugged, looking back toward the portrait Lucy had painted of him. "She sees me like no one else does."

"And how is that?"

"Like this," he whispered, gesturing to the painting. "Everyone else… They don't give a shit about who I am, but Lucy understands me. And I'd like to think I understand her, too."

"Do you love her?" Layla whispered, watching as a tender smile ticked up the corners of his lips, baring the faintest hint of dimples in his cheeks. Really, the portrait they were in front of was very obviously Erik, but by the look on his face right then, she just couldn't imagine him smiling the way Lucy had painted. And still, Layla knew that her daughter had a way of seeing parts of people that no one else did.

"I haven't told her that yet," he chuckled. "Think you can keep my secret?"

A tender smile graced the older blonde's face and she turned to press a soft kiss to the scar on his cheek. "I think you'll be just fine for my little girl," she whispered. "And I didn't even have to threaten you."

As they turned to make their way back to the larger group, Erik laughed and shook his head. "Knowing Lucy, you're the one I should really be afraid of. So, I'm counting my blessings right now."

"A wise choice, Erik."

Once Lucy was back on Erik's arm, and after they had decided to leave the art showing to get dinner with her family a short while later, Erik found the conversation to flow much easier with her parents. Things were simple, funny as hell at times, and then he just had to ruin it all.

"So, Erik," Metallicana said after taking a sip of his wine. "What are you doing over the summer? The kids said they invited you to come down with them and stay with us?"

"Well, my Granny called and asked if I'd head back to Caelum for a visit," he said.

"Oh my god, that's adorable," Layla sighed. "You really love your grandmother, huh?"

Metallicana and Gajeel both dropped their heads into their hands, groaning at the suddenly heart-melting expression the blonde was giving Erik. Lucy and Bickslow quietly laughed.

Erik, for his part, was ready to crawl under a rock and die. Or to have a roadrunner drop a fucking anvil on him from a fifty story cliff. He really wasn't picky.

He'd never meant to mention that shit to anyone but Lucy, or the fact that he was planning on telling his grandmother to fuck off for the summer with a promise that he'd be home for Christmas if she wanted. But, with the look he was getting from Layla, he was pretty sure she would eat his ass alive if he said anything other than yes, he was going home to see Granny Porly.

And that was when he realized that it would probably be a much better idea to visit his scowling, grouchy, broom-wielding grandmother than spend two months with Lucy's parents. Layla was fucking scary when she wanted to be. He could almost hear the cogs working overtime in her brain on how to get Lucy to bear an exorbitant amount of his children, which only sent chills down his spine.

"Uh, yeah," he coughed awkwardly. "She's the only family I've got, so… Yeah."

Lucy laced her fingers with Erik's beneath the table, giving them a reassuring squeeze. It definitely sucked that he wouldn't be spending the summer with her, because she had wanted to take him down to the beach and try her hand at building a sand castle with someone she could actually work with - since Gajeel was a bossy little bitch when it came to sand sculptures. But, really, she understood. Based on the slight tremor in his voice, her mom was scaring the shit out of him.

"Well, that's just too sweet for words," Layla giggled.

"It's really not," Metallicana muttered.

"Pretty much," Erik shrugged.

"I'm gonna miss you," Lucy whispered.

Erik bit his lip and frowned down at his empty plate and nearly empty glass of water. He didn't want to spend the summer without his girlfriend, that much he was sure of. And, even though he hadn't been expecting it, he  _had_  gotten to meet her family. "Love," he said back.

"Hm?"

"Would you, maybe… wanna go visit Granny Porly with me?"

A sudden hush fell over the table, with Metallicana, Layla, Bickslow, and Gajeel all staring intently at the couple with their jaws slack.

"We'd probably have to update your passport, but… I could, uh… show you around and all that."

"I won't be able to see it," Lucy laughed softly, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Sure, you won't get to see all the sexy dumpsters I was planning on taking you to, but… You can smell them. That's an adventure all on its own."

"Ass," she giggled, pinching his thigh.

"Layla, don't say a fucking word," Metallicana whispered, wincing as she gripped his hand and her nails dug into his flesh.

"Seriously though," Erik chuckled. "Wanna meet her? She's been asking about you."

"Since when?"

"Since you started posting pictures of me online, you fucking creeper. She's figured out the internet… It's terrifying."

Lucy nibbled her lip, feeling his thumb brushing over the back of her hand beneath the table. "Which part of Caelum?"

"Holy shit," Bickslow whispered to Gajeel.

"Shut up, Bix," Gajeel whispered back. Really, his boyfriend was just as bad as his stepmother when it came to being a fucking sap over romantic shit. Especially where Lucy was concerned.

"Southern shore. She lives in a cottage about three miles from the beach."

After a single breath, Lucy gave him a brilliant smile. "I'd like that, Erik."

He grinned right back, then gave her a quick kiss and turned back to look at the rest of her family, only to snap his jaw shut. "... What?"

"Over the river and through the woods," Gajeel smirked.

"Railroad dick, I'm gonna beat your ass," Erik hissed.

"Oh my god!" Layla finally screeched. "You two are going to have the cutest little babies!" She wilted out of her chair and to the ground once the words had passed her lips.

"Goddamnit," Metallicana muttered. "Baby girl, I blame you for this."

Lucy shrugged helplessly while the guys all laughed. Really, there was only so much she could do, but she was sure that there was nothing that would have stopped her mother from descending into madness. The woman had been waiting a very long time for her daughter to be in a real relationship, after all.

Erik shook his head and chuckled as Metallicana poured the pitcher of ice water from the table on the unconscious woman. Slowly, once he was sure no one else was paying attention to them, he leaned over to whisper in Lucy's ear. "Why do I get the feeling that'll be us in a few years?"

"Huh?" Lucy frowned, turning toward the sound of his humor-filled voice. "Are you planning on pouring water on me?" It was an almost daily occurrence that her dad would pour water on her mother during a meal. Lucy still didn't understand why she never got mad about it, but it was adorable listening to the two pretend to argue afterwards.

"Only if you start screaming about babies when our daughter is dating a sexy motherfucker."

"Wh-What… You… D-Daughter?" Lucy sputtered.

Erik shrugged and gave the blushing blonde a light peck on the lips. "Not for a long ass time, love," he chuckled.

"Y-You… Huh?"

"Cosplayer, I think he's saying he wants you to have his babies," Bickslow chuckled.

"A whole litter of fuckin' Cobra-Bunnies… Please, don't do that to the world," Gajeel groaned.

"B-Babies?" Lucy whimpered.

"One day," Erik chuckled against her lips. When he saw the unnatural shade of red Lucy's face had become, he grinned and whispered, "I love you, Lucy."

Her eyes widened just as Layla sat back down, blotting at the moisture on her blouse. "I-I love you too, Erik," Lucy giggled breathlessly.

The group at the table laughed as Lucy's mother collapsed to the ground again, with Metallicana dropping his head to the table and whining loudly about the unfairness of being married to a fucking lunatic. The other diners in the restaurant turned to look at them for all of five seconds before two intense glares from Gajeel and Erik had them returning to their own meals.

"When do we leave for Caelum?" Lucy asked after several minutes, her sides burning from her laughter.

"Next week sound good?"

She sighed happily and laid her head on his shoulder, smiling more widely as Erik kissed her hair. "It sounds perfect."

_**.The End.** _

 

**Author's Note:**

> Here was the original prompt.  
>  _Imagine Person A is a synesthete and Person B is blind. Person A uses their synesthesia to explain to Person B what colours are._
> 
> As you can see, I didn't entirely stick to that. But, who cares?!
> 
> For anyone that doesn't know what a switch is, or why Erik would have been forced to go get one himself, it's essentially a flexible branch cut from a tree to be used for corporal punishment. Some people have children go to cut their own switches as part of the punishment (where they have to strip all the twigs, etc. off) and then spank them with it. I don't know if that's a custom anywhere else, but down in Florida, it was very common when I was a kid.
> 
> Oh, and I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to painting (much like Cobra), so I did the best I could. I hope there weren't too many inconsistencies or just downright false bits of information.
> 
> As far as the science... Yeah, that's all google. Seriously, go watch the youtube videos of potassium exploding in water. It's awesome.
> 
> Also, there will be a continuation one-shot at some point of Erik and (blind)Lucy going to Caelum to visit Granny Porly. I don't know when that'll happen, but I just had so much fun writing these two that I know writing Porlyusica will be a damn treat.


End file.
